sfuthesis

The sfuthesis project provides a template from which graduate students at Simon Fraser University can start writing their thesis or dissertation. The LaTeX class file sfuthesis.cls sets your document to follow the SFU Library's style requirements, so you can focus on writing up your research instead of fiddling with formatting.

As of Summer 2015, the SFU Library has approved the 2.0.0 release of sfuthesis to replace the old thesis templates used from 1989 through 2014.

Before you submit your thesis, please make sure to double-check all style requirements on the SFU Library website. There are several standards (e.g. abstract word limits) that LaTeX cannot automatically arrange for you, and you are ultimately responsible for making sure that your thesis conforms to the regulations set out by the library.

System requirements

To use the SFU LaTeX thesis class, you will need a relatively recent LaTeX distribution. (For information on how to install one, see the LaTeX Project website.) In particular, it depends on the following (standard) packages:

appendix to add the word "Appendix" to the Table of Contents
etoolbox for class options
geometry to set margins
lmodern and fontenc for extended fonts
nowidow to prevent nearly-empty pages
setspace for line spacing
tocloft to make the ToC nicer

If you do not already have these installed, you can easily get them using the package manager that came with your distribution (tlmgr in TeX Live or its GUI frontend TeX Live Utility on OS X; mpm on Windows MikTeX installations).

Installation

Download the project files to your computer.
Rename template.tex to something more suitable, like thesis.tex. Delete the placeholder information and replace it with your own.
You may copy sfuthesis.cls to any folder in your TEXPATH. If you don't know what this means, make sure that sfuthesis.cls stays in the same folder as your thesis's main file.
Compile your main thesis file with your favourite LaTeX editor or from the command line using latexmk:

latexmk -pdf thesis.tex

Usage

To get started writing your thesis, just follow the installation instructions above and replace the sample content in template.tex with your own!

Generating an approval page

When you have finished your thesis, you will need to provide your department's graduate secretary with an approval page for your committee to sign at your defence. To generate this page, recompile your thesis after replacing the line

\documentclass{sfuthesis}

with

\documentclass{sfuapproval}

Undefended theses

The library requires a slightly different approval page format if the thesis is accepted without a defence taking place. If this applies to you, use the undefended class option to format the approval page correctly.

\documentclass[undefended]{sfuthesis}

Including an Ethics Statement

If your research requires an Ethics Statement, you will need to download a PDF copy of the statement and include it immediately after the approval page.

\usepackage{pdfpages}

...

\addtoToC{Ethics Statement}%
\includepdf[pagecommand={\thispagestyle{plain}}]{ethicsstatement.pdf}%
\clearpage

The SFU Library has moved to digital-only thesis submission and no longer requires print copies of theses be submitted. However, if you do want to print your thesis, you can use the bound or twoside options to set margins for book binding.

Contributing

The sfuthesis class is written such that it should not be necessary to edit sfuthesis.cls itself. If you find you have to do so in order to make your thesis compile or to fix a display bug, please let me know by:

emailing ross@rosschurchley.com, or
filing an issue if you have a GitHub account, or
issuing a pull request if you have a GitHub account and a bugfix.

amsharifian / Depth-Report